Aaron took a sip of the yellow and pink drink that was in his left hand. He grimaced a little as it burned going down his throat. He made a mental note to not only alert Jackson later that they didn’t serve synthehol here by default but also made a mental note for himself to keep that in mind.

He glanced around the room, doing his best to spot any of the other officers from Task Force 17 arriving. It wasn’t always easy to spot another Starfleet officer in civilian clothing but he was hopeful others could spot him considering he wore his commbadge on his blank tank top.

The Vulcan security officer, Syth, quietly entered the room as others slowly trickled in. Unlike the others that got the memo, he was still dressed in his Starfleet uniform. An obvious sign he did not really want to be there. He was urged to ‘have fun’ on the planet surface with the rest of the crew of the Halcyon, but he had no such desire. Even after serving all these years about Starfleet ships, filled with human officers, he still did not understand their penchant for ‘rest and relaxation’ as they called it. It wasn’t that Syth did not understand how to relax. On the contrary, he found meditation and practicing martials arts to be an enjoyable experience. However, his commanding officer balked at the idea of him not enjoying the festivities. He even offered to stay behind to watch over the ship as the crew had left, but Syth had done that the last three times at space dock. No, he had to enjoy himself.

He recognized some junior officers from his crew, but they were deep in some engaging conversation and he did not want to interrupt them. After ordering a bland glass of water from a server, he noticed another person standing off from the others. A shiny combadge on his chest revealed his affiliation was in alignment with Syth’s. Knowing that he needed to make more of an effort to mingle, he walked over to the man holding a strange pink and yellow drink.

“Greetings.” Syth raised his glass in a friendly manner.

Aakon nodded, giving the man a friendly smile. “Hello. Captain Aakon Keacen of the…” He paused, mind wondering a bit. The Resnik was still adrift, he had no formal command yet. “To be determined and let’s leave it at that.”

He eyed the man’s uniform, which stuck out like a sore thumb amount the more casually dressed crowd that gathered.

“Not a fan of forced shore leave, I take it? Not many people here show up in full uniform.” He glanced down at his own commbadge still attached to his shirt. “Granted I’m still wearing my commbadge so I’m not one to talk.”

Syth stood upright when Aakon revealed his rank, but he quickly loosened up, remembering that this was not a cadet review. His swelling emotional embarrassment was weighed down by his sense of logic. This was shore leave and not meant to be formal. He glanced down at his prim uniform.

“Indeed,” he agreed. “I do not typically attend these type of events. I -”

The Vulcan was unsure if the man wanted to hear about how his shipmates had to force him to come here. He decided against it.

“Lieutenant Commander Syth of the USS Halcyon,” he introduced. “We’ve just returned from a deep-space assignment. I regret that we missed the recent conflict with the Vaadwaur.”

It was an odd thing to say that one “missed” such an awful event, but he couldn’t help but think back to his lost ship – the Zhen’tharn. He lost a lot of close shipmates. A part of him wondered how many Aakon had lost.

Aakon’s face stilled as his mind flashed back to the images that were seared into his subconscious; the Bridge of the Resnik charred and all but destroyed. “Be thankful deep space saved you. They marched through the quadrants and left nothing but ash in their wake. I lost my ship and most of my crew.”

He sighed and did his best to shake off and push down the memories. “But I suppose that is why we have to have this lovely vacation.” He reached over and picked up the PADD that was on the table next to him, offering it to Syth. “There is a list of activities on there, some of which are scientific conferences and lectures and assorted things like that that are going on at the resort. They might peek your interest a little more than the volleyball tournaments.” He paused for a moment. “I’m not even sure what volleyball is.”

Syth was certainly no specialist when it came to understanding human behavior, but Aakon’s face spoke a thousand words without uttering a single syllable. For the first time in a while, he felt an almost sense of kinship to another Starfleet officer. The crew of the Halcyon were kind and empathetic towards his loss, but they would never truly understand.